Greenland, a vast territory covered largely by an ice cap, hides fascinating secrets. One of them was recently revealed by NASA scientists during a research mission. In April 2024, a NASA plane flew over this icy region and detected a secret, forgotten city: Camp Century, an abandoned military base dating from the Cold War. This unexpected discovery reveals a long-hidden military project, but also current environmental issues linked to global warming.
A secret military base built into the ice of Greenland
At the heart of the Cold War, in the 1950s, the United States sought to strengthen its defense posture against the Soviet Union. With its strategic position and isolation, Greenland has become the ideal site for a secret project: the Project Iceworm. The objective was then to build a network of tunnels under the ice cap to deploy intermediate-range nuclear ballistic missiles (IRBM) capable of hitting the Soviet Union.
The military base Camp Centurycomposed of tunnels dug directly into the ice over nearly 4,023 kilometers; was therefore erected in 1959 for this purpose. Engineers designed these tunnels to house missiles and military installations. However, the base was abandoned in 1967, due to the complexity of maintaining these structures in an ever-changing ice sheet. Although Project Iceworm was canceled, remnants of this secret era still remain under the ice of Greenland today.
A rediscovery thanks to NASA technology
NASA's discovery of Camp Century was no accident. In April 2024, scientists on a mission to map the ice sheets used a avion Gulfstream III equipped with radar instruments to probe the ice and measure its thickness. This flight was part of a larger study aimed at better understanding the impact of global warming on the Greenland ice sheet, and in particular the risks to sea level rise.
It was by analyzing the data collected that the researchers discovered underground structures that were difficult to identify at first. After several analyses, however, it appeared that these structures were those of the abandoned Camp Century military base. The discovery, made possible by the use of modern radar technology, allowed scientists to see this city beneath the ice like never before, providing a never-before-seen glimpse into a forgotten military project.
A legacy of the Cold War under the threat of climate change
While the Camp Century discovery sheds fascinating light on a little-known aspect of the Cold War, it also raises crucial environmental questions. When it was abandoned in 1967, contaminants such as nuclear waste, fuel and sewage were indeed left behind, buried under meters of ice. At the time, no one could imagine that the effects of global warming could one day expose them again.
However, today, the accelerated melting of the ice cap due to global warming threatens to release these buried pollutants. Scientists from NASA and the US government have also expressed concerns about the risk of groundwater contamination. In 2017, a statement from the United States government recognized this danger and the need to work with the Danish government and Greenlandic authorities to safely manage this situation.
Beyond the historical and environmental aspects, this scientific mission also provides essential data to understand the climate change. Studying Greenland's ice sheets allows researchers to better model future sea level rises. These ices, which store much of the planet's water, respond to warming of the oceans and atmosphere. Knowing their thickness and dynamics is therefore crucial to predicting the effects of warming on coastlines around the world.
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